Karen J. Terry

Stained Glass The Nature and Scope of Child Sexual Abuse in the Catholic Church

This article presents the results of the Nature and Scope of Child Sexual Abuse by Catholic Priests from 1950 to 2002. Ninety-seven percent of dioceses (representing 99% of diocesan priests) and 64% of religious communities (representing 83% of religious priests) responded to the request for data. Findings showed that 4,392 priests (4%) had allegations of abuse, 10,667 victims made allegations, and the Church paid (at the time surveys were completed)

Child Sexual Abuse in the Catholic Church How Situational Crime Prevention Strategies Can Help Create Safe Environments

572.5 million for legal and treatment fees and as compensation to the victims (more than

Research Trajectories of Female Scholars in Criminology and Criminal Justice

1.3 billion to date). The study also provided information on the circumstances of the abuse (e.g., types of sexual acts, location, duration), the offenders (e.g., year of ordination, age, ministry duties, other behavioral problems), the victims (e.g., age and gender, family situation), and the dioceses (e.g., differences in abuse rates by region and population size). Importance of these results for policy and practice is discussed.

Child sexual abuse in the Catholic Church: Revisiting the rotten apples explanation

Research on child sexual abuse often focuses on offenders, particularly on explanations of the etiology and maintenance of their abusive behavior. A recent study by Smallbone and Wortley suggests, however, that research should also focus on the situation in which the sexual abuse occurs. This article employs the situational crime prevention (SCP) framework that they used to study child sexual abusers in Queensland to study patterns of abuse by Catholic priests. Results from the study on the nature and scope of child sexual abuse by Catholic priests support the assertions by Smallbone and Wortley that there is a situational component to sexually abusive behavior. The discussion outlines the steps taken by the Catholic Church as well as other SCP techniques that could be employed to create safe environments.

Motivation and Sex Offender Treatment Efficacy: Leading a Horse to Water and Making It Drink?

Other than through its ties to scholarship on the sociology of higher education, the topic of female scholar productivity appears to be timely in light of the gender transformation underway in criminology and criminal justice (e.g., the majority of CCJ graduate students are female, and the CCJ professorate will be majority female if admission patterns hold). Toward this end, the present study provides an examination of the employment patterns and publication trajectories of 88 female scholars who graduated between 1996 and 2006 from 18 North American doctoral programs in criminology and criminal justice. In addition, the study employs a subset of career concepts (frequency, specialization, seriousness, and co‐offending) to the publication records of a group of 20 graduates we call “academic stars” to more fully explicate trends and issues related to the dissemination of knowledge in leading academic journals. Findings suggest that research productivity varies depending on the measure utilized (e.g., type of outlet; standardized or unstandardized by time‐in‐profession; weighted or unweighted by coauthorship patterns). Different measures of central tendency provide different snapshots of institutional output. Publication frequencies are found to be greater among scholars employed at Carnegie high‐research‐intensity universities. Regarding research type‐mix, the stars tend to be more eclectic than specialized. Future directions for research are also discussed.

Persistent sexual abusers in the Catholic Church: an examination of characteristics and offense patterns

The Catholic Church response to its sexual abuse crisis and how the problem should be addressed parallels the “rotten apple” assertions of police deviance. The rotten apple theory, however, does not fully explain police deviance, as there are often also structural explanations. This article employs Kappeler, Sluder, and Alperts (1998) police deviance framework to characterize and understand the Catholic Church sex abuse scandal, drawing specific comparisons to the intentional use of excessive force by police. Though the analogy has limitations, there are similarities at both the individual and organizational levels, particularly because the Church has implemented accountability mechanisms similar to the police. The article concludes with a discussion of lessons the Church can learn from the police organization as they seek to prevent, control, and effectively respond to sexual abuse of children by their clergy.

Understanding Child Sexual Abuse by Catholic Priests from a Situational Perspective

The authors conducted a study to analyze the outcome of a cognitive behavioral treatment program for incarcerated sex offenders. Specifically, the study aimed to determine whether motivation to participate in the program had an impact on the reduction of cognitive distortions (CDs). Seven CDs were analyzed in pretreatment and posttreatment assessments, and the treatment was considered effective for offenders who eliminated more than half of the CDs by the end of the program. The results showed comparable success rates for sex offenders with adult victims who were and were not motivated to change their offending behavior. Motivation did have an effect on offenders with child victims, although the reasons for this are unclear and should be explored with a larger sample of offenders.

Repeat Offending, Victim Gender, and Extent of Victim Relationship in Catholic Church Sexual Abusers: Implications for Risk Assessment

This study aims to enhance understanding of clergy offending patterns through a comparison of low-rate and high-rate clergy offenders. Data for these re-analyses are derived from 3,674 cases from the Nature and Scope of Child Sexual Abuse in the Catholic Church. This article compares those clerics who had just one allegation with those who had a moderate (2 to 3), high (4 to 9), or exceptionally high (10-plus) number of allegations of sexual abuse. Findings reveal that the 3.7% ( n =137) who had 10 or more victims accounted for a disproportionate 24.8% of the abuse. Priests with the most victims began perpetrating offenses at an earlier age and were more likely to have male victims than those who abused fewer victims. The importance of research addressing the causes and situational correlates of sexual offending by priests, as well as the need for more refined management strategies, are discussed.

Analyzing Paraphilic Activity, Specialization, and Generalization in Priests Who Sexually Abused Minors:

Most sexual offense research focuses on offender motivation and individual risk factors rather than the criminal events themselves. This article provides an analysis of data from two studies on child sexual abuse by Catholic priests to help understand the opportunities clergy had or created to abuse youth. Findings show that situational factors played a role in victim choice among a heterogeneous group of abusers. Priests abused more male than female victims and had significantly greater access to male youth historically. When access to female youth increased in the 1990s, abuse of females as a percentage of victims also increased. The article concludes with a discussion about how ecological information can be used to craft intervention policies to prevent sexual offenses.

New York’s Crime Drop Puzzle: Introduction to the Special Issue

Despite wide reports of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church, empirical data on Catholic Church sexual abuse have not been readily available. The present study examines factors associated with sex-offender risk assessment along three criteria (repeat offending, victim gender, and victim relationship) on a sample of sexual abusers in the Catholic Church. Data from 4,392 priests with documented allegations of child sexual abuse were used. Logistic regression analysis resulted in significant predictive models for all comparisons. Factors consistently found to be significant predictors across comparisons included victim age, cleric age, all male victims, and history of victimization. Results suggest that risk predictors for Catholic Church sexual abusers are similar to those used in the general sex-offender population.